Why is Free Fire Banned in India? – A Complete Detail

The Free Fire game developed by Garena is a top class online battle royale game, having millions of users worldwide. Not only does it offer an unmatched gameplay experience to its players with top of the line graphics and features it also offers amazing customer support.

The developers of the game regularly organize exciting in-game events, matches and tournaments with huge prizes to keep the game even more exciting and so that the players remain engaged.

Although the Garena Free Fire game has a diverse and worldwide player base. The larger part of its user base came from India. The game was one of the most popular ones of its category in India and had a strong presence in the Indian gaming community.

The gaming world was shocked to see that Garena Free Fire was banned in India in February 2022. Although, any clear reasons for the ban were not cited by the Government of India. There were numerous speculations in the Indian and International gaming community about the reasons for the ban. Join FF Advance server APK if you are not allowed to get official game.

In this article we discuss the details of the ban imposed on the Garena Free Fire by the Government of India in February 2022.

Overview of the Ban

It is well known that India and China have always been in a diplomatic rift. Given the nature of relations between the two countries, the Government of India wanted to make sure that its cyberspace is secure.

So, it decided to ban all the apps on the internet that were linked to China in any way. The objective of banning these apps was to improve the cyber security of the country and to make sure that the Indian user data does not go to China.

For this purpose, the Government of India released a list of 54 apps that were banned. The Garena Free Fire was one of them. One thing to notice and that was difficult to understand here was, the list did not include Free Fire Max, an upgraded version of Garena Free Fire by the same company.

Grounds of the Ban

The 54 apps that were banned in India by the Government were allegedly linked to China. The Government of India banned Garena Free Fire under Section 16A of the Information Technology Act (ITA). This law cites reasons that include national security.

The parent company of the Free Fire game, Sea Limited, was headquartered in Singapore. The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the company was born in China. He moved to Singapore and now holds the nationality of Singapore.

Due to the Chinese linkage, the Government of India was of the view that the company was providing Indian user data to China.

BGMI KRAFTON vs Garena Case

Another reason for the ban that was circulating in the gaming circles around the world was the BGMI KRAFTON vs Garena Free Fire case. KRAFTON, a similar company that owns the Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI) game, sued Garena Free Fire in the Indian Court.

Garena Free Fire was accused by KRAFTON of plagiarism. KRAFTON also accused YouTube of allowing content and streams that were plagiarized from BGMI by Free Fire.

Steps by the Developers in Response to the Ban

The ban in India had a very severe impact on Garena Free Fire. It had around 40 million active users in India. Following the ban, the company faced a huge loss. Due to the circumstances, the Government of Singapore also raised the issue with the Government of India on the diplomatice level.

The company was determined to return back to India and started working on the concerns of the Indian Government. The company acquired servers from Hiranandani India to assure the Indian Government that the India user data will not go to Chinese servers. The company has also developed an India specific version of the game called Free Fire India.

Read More On Free Fire

Recap – Why Free Fire Is Banned In India

In February 2022, the Government of India released a list of 54 apps that also included Garena Free Fire. The ban was imposed under Section 16A of the ITA citing reasons of national security. The grounds of the ban included links to China and the Indian user data being compromised.

Garena has worked to address the concerns of the Indian Government and has launched an India specific version of the game with Indian servers called Free Fire India.